Caterpillar (CAT) is today's Dog of the Dow (^DJI) dropping more than 7%. The company not only came up short on estimates but also warned that slowing global growth would lead to a weaker than hoped 2015. CAT’s a cyclical company and always has been. Nothing odd about fluctuations in demand. What is strange is management highlighted $4.2B in stock repurchases as a good thing for shareholders. Not only did earnings per share decline anyway but the average price of CAT shares over the last year was about $100. Today you can buy all the Caterpillar stock you want for less than $80. Repurchased shares are retired but if the company was a fund they would be down about $850 million on those repurchases. Might be best to stick to earth moving equipment, gang. It's a tough enough job already.
Microsoft (MSFT) is face planting by 10% today. The tech giant reported more or less in line results for its fiscal second quarter but took down full year estimates on both earnings and revenues. It's all part of the transition from a Windows monopoly to... well... to something different. Deutsche Bank (DB) and Credit Suisse (CS) helpfully cut estimates after the fact. Adding insult to injury influential Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund downgraded shares to neutral from buy. That thud you hear is Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's 1 year honeymoon ending with a bang, not a whimper. Apple (AAPL) is hurting as well
Finally, they can't all be downers. Corning (GLW) shares are inching higher in a grim tape after the company reported better than expected earnings. It's all about demand for larger screen TVs driving revenue for that division higher by 69%. Slightly smaller but equally sexy gains were also seen in fiber optics and so-called Gorilla glass products. In the conference call this morning CFO Jim Flaws said "we feel very good about the glass market in 2015," adding "retail TV demand is strong". It ain't much but on a day such as this we'll take it
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